Myth Busted: Swimming After Eating Isn’t Dangerous, Science Says

Picture it: you’re 10 years old, you’ve just devoured the hotel breakfast buffet, and now you’re ready for a day of fun of swimming. But wait – your parents say you have to wait before swimming. Why? None of their answers seem believable, and there’s a good reason for that.

Science does not support this idea. There might be an occasional anecdote involving the mysterious death of a child the same age as you. Scientific literature on the matter is lacking. What does exist doesn’t support the notion that swimming directly after eating poses any significant danger.

Origins of the Myth

“The old belief was that after you eat, some of the blood may be diverted to your gut for digestion, diverting the bloodstream away from your arms and legs,” emergency medicine physician Dr. Michael Boniface told Mayo Clinic Minute. “You may get tired or fatigued and be more likely to drown.”

Although the age of this belief isn’t exactly clear, some of the earliest evidence of it appears in the 1908 handbook Scouting for Boys.

“First, there is the danger of cramp. If you bathe within an hour and a half after taking a meal, that is, before your food is digested, you are very likely to get cramp. Cramp doubles you up in extreme pain so that you cannot move your arms or legs – and down you go,” it reads. “You may drown – and it will be your own fault.”

In 2011, the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council investigated the existing scientific literature on swimming after eating. The investigation found, in both recreational and competitive swimming, “no incidence of fatal or non-fatal drowning.”

“There is currently no evidence to support any link between eating before swimming and drowning. The persistence of this myth is not actively harmful, but it is nonetheless a myth,” the council concluded.